Cleaned games, don't work. What do, DP?

[LeonHikari]

I have a few games that refuse to work. I bought them at a thrift store not to long ago, so I decided to clean them. No matter what I do and no matter how many times I clean them, they just up and refuse to work. Shinobi shows a black screen (I got it working ONCE), but R-type just blanks the screen for a split second and then doesn't even show a video signal. I've cleaned both carts with alcohol and emory board (a lot of people hate this, but it does work. no, I haven't scrubbed the pins off the cart) and neither seems to work.

So, what can I do? Are there any other tricks I can try? I've never had a cart that didn't work after this much furious cleaning.

[theclaw]

The SMS cart slot appears to be somewhat less reliable than Genesis, at least that's a vague suspicion I'm slowly beginning to get. Odds are good those games will work on power base converter without problem.

[LeonHikari]

The SMS cart slot appears to be somewhat less reliable than Genesis, at least that's a vague suspicion I'm slowly beginning to get. Odds are good those games will work on power base converter without problem.

I'm actually using a power base converter.

[alec006]

I'm actually using a power base converter.

Well in that case, that may be the capacitors drying up, it's a common problem with the Power Base Convertor.

[LeonHikari]

Well in that case, that may be the capacitors drying up, it's a common problem with the Power Base Convertor.


Well, the thing is, I've got other games that work just fine as soon as i insert them. Didn't have to clean 'em or anything.

[Imstarryeyed]

The boards the games are on are most likely damaged by age or dampness or dead traces. We fix carts at my store here in Texas and most of the time its a bad trace from the cart edge connector to the chips.

The caps in the carts normally are only for filtering so the carts do not need them to work 99% of the time.

Sometimes the chips needs to be desoldered and a replacement board, a sports game sacrafice is sometimes needed. Sometimes the boards are unique to the game and cannot be easily exchanged with a sports game.

[Imstarryeyed]

The boards the games are on are most likely damaged by age or dampness or dead traces. We fix carts at my store here in Texas and most of the time its a bad trace from the cart edge connector to the chips.

The caps in the carts normally are only for filtering so the carts do not need them to work 99% of the time.

Sometimes the chips needs to be desoldered and a replacement board, a sports game sacrafice is sometimes needed. Sometimes the boards are unique to the game and cannot be easily exchanged with a sports game.

The carts are kinda a pain to resolder and fix but if a game is worth it to a customer and they dont mind the sometimes very expensive fix its ok. Obviously sentimental ones are the ones people often fix.

[LeonHikari]

Update:

So get this: I cleaned out my power base converter and the games one last time and plugged them into my friend's genesis, it works fine. Bring it back home, plug it into mine? It doesn't work.

Looks like there's something wrong in my genesis.

[theclaw]

Hmm. I think some Genesis 3 revisions need modding to use the power base converter.

[BetaWolf47]

The Power Base Converter is just a slot converter that passes pins from SMS carts to your Genesis. There aren't any special circuits or anything, just some capacitors, traces, resistors, etc.

So, there may be a pin that your new games use that your old ones don't. The bad connection seems to be from your power base converter to your Genesis. Clean out your Genesis cart slot and the part of the Power Base Converter that connects to the Genesis, and see if that helps.

[LeonHikari]

Hmm. I think some Genesis 3 revisions need modding to use the power base converter.

I have a model 1, so it's all good.


The Power Base Converter is just a slot converter that passes pins from SMS carts to your Genesis. There aren't any special circuits or anything, just some capacitors, traces, resistors, etc.

So, there may be a pin that your new games use that your old ones don't. The bad connection seems to be from your power base converter to your Genesis. Clean out your Genesis cart slot and the part of the Power Base Converter that connects to the Genesis, and see if that helps.


Well, i'll clean it out and see what i find out.